


Coming Home

by dennih23



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-12
Updated: 2012-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-16 03:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dennih23/pseuds/dennih23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal thinks about home</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: White Collar belongs to Jeff Eastin who is gracious enough to let us play in his sandbox.  
> For my Cotton Candy Bingo – Home square

For Neal Bennett home had been a small house just outside Washington DC with his mom and dad. His life had been happy. He has vague memories of sitting on his mother’s lap while she read him stories. His father, a policeman, took him places and told him tall tales. Before his third birthday things would change.

**************************************

At three years old he became Danny Brooks – his first alias. Home was now a house in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. He doesn’t remember much about his first year there. He doesn’t remember the arguments he had with his mother. He didn’t like the name Danny and for almost a year he fought her over his new name. 

His mother slowly retreated into her own world, unable to care for her young son. He would still sit on her lap and she still told him stories. The stories were different now and she usually told the story of his father, the hero, who died bringing down a group of bad men.

His stronghold had been Katherine who he now was told to call Ellen. She became his surrogate mother and she tried her best to keep this family together. She had been a police officer like his father and he looked up to her. 

He joined the boy scouts and earned merit badges quickly. He learned fast and enjoyed the activities. He liked rifle shooting and asked Ellen to teach him to shoot; she complied and watched him grow to be an expert marksman. He started to have aspirations of becoming an officer of the law like his father.

He learned to think outside the box. If he wanted something, he would figure out a way to get it. He did not always stay within the rules, but his winning smile and quick wit taught him how to get exactly what he wanted.

At eighteen years old his life changed once again. He was about to graduate high school and announced his decision to go into law enforcement. That’s when Ellen sat him down and told him the truth. She told him about his real name, that his father had been a dirty cop, and that they were in a Government Witness Protection Program. 

He reeled from the news and ran to another life.

*********************************************

Neal Caffrey’s home was all over the world. It started in New York City, where he used his art to forge bonds and create a new person – a conman. He became a criminal. He met Mozzie who helped him hone his skills and he became an expert on many things. He kept learning new things in order to advance his knowledge for the cons. Neal accepted his talents for crime – like father, like son. 

He roamed the world from Denmark to the French Riviera, to Singapore as Neal Caffrey. Each place found him in a new home, whether it was an abandoned house, apartment, or a borrowed hotel room. 

But more aliases and homes were to follow: Nick Halden was from Reno, Nevada;  
Steve Tabernacle from Beverly Hills, California; George Devore from Nogales, Arizona; and George Donnelly from West Bloomfield, Michigan. Each person he created was from somewhere new and different. He continued to travel the world this way, becoming new people from different places; each alias having something Neal Bennett always wanted.

But his life of crime did not escape him. He was caught and the SuperMax became his home for almost four years.

*****************************************

James Maine lived in Cape Verde for six weeks. This was going to be his last and final alias – it needed to be. The FBI was after him and there was no going back – he had given up everything in becoming James.

James was a wealthy American enjoying the good life. He didn’t need to worry about money, but it was boring – there were no challenges in his life. He missed Neal Caffrey and New York, but knew he would never be able to go back there. He settled into his home.

Then his life changed again. Peter Burke arrived and found a way to bring Neal Caffrey back home. Peter used his skills and methods and found a way for James Maine to go back to New York and be Neal Caffrey once again.

As they boarded the plane, Peter wrapped his arm around him, telling him, “Let’s go home”. It hit him, for the first time since his childhood he really was going home to a place he loved and would be surrounded by people he truly cared about.


End file.
